Friday, February 13, 2015

'God Bless America' Banned from Florida School

Heaven forbid: A student at Yulee (Florida) High School read the morning announcements over the intercom and concluded by saying "God Bless America." Supposedly, two anonymous atheist students who were offended by those words, but who did NOT say anything to school administrators, contacted the American Humanist Association (AHA), who in turn threatened the school.

"It was crazy... I think everyone has the right of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. I hope he does it again. We want to let him know he should not be ashamed, that he did the right thing. I don't see what this young man has done wrong.... We need to stand out here and stand up for him."-- Kathy Parker, adult citizen, protesting at school

The atheist students at Yulee High in Nassau County took their complaints to the American Humanist Association, and the group's lawyers [the Appignani Humanist Legal Center] sent a letter threatening the school with a lawsuit.

First Coast News reports that the group said it is "inappropriate and unlawful" for a public school to use God in an official statement.

In response, the school district said students were free to express their beliefs all day long, but not during school announcements.

The student used the phrase to end the announcements on multiple occasions, according to the American Humanist Association, which sent a letter to the school's principal threatening legal action if the school did not respond within seven days. The incident thrust Yulee into the national spotlight after the AHA got involved.

Parker says she doesn't have any kids in high school yet, but said she will continue to support the student at Yulee.

Principal Natasha Drake's response to the American Humanist Association said the student's “God bless America,” statement was not part of the approved scripted announcements.

More parents and students plan to demonstrate after Yulee High School lets out for the day.

The AHA said the student violated the Constitution and broke the law by invoking God’s name over the public address system. They demanded the school immediately cease and desist under the threat of a lawsuit.

I asked Jeremy Dys, an attorney with Liberty Institute to weigh in on this nonsense and he said the atheists don’t have a prayer.

"Whether a student is being patriotic or engaging in religious speech, there is no law in this country forbidding a student from telling his or her classmates, ‘God bless America’ and it is illegal for a school to censor a student for doing so,” he said.

“Regardless of this attempt by secularists to white wash over this demonstration of patriotism by a teenager, America’s students do not give up their right to free speech and the expression of their religious beliefs when they go to school,” he said.